GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Steineded How sad is this?

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Bob Pr. I have no problem with the anti-racist bias here. I DO have MAJOR problems with the techniques used in re-training the dog out of his racial bias. Possibly the author of the original story (and the film people) consulted only local dog trainers? My background (although a professional PhD clinical psychologist, now retired) includes 7 years study on my PhD in learning theory which also included teaching many fellow PhD candidates.This film's authors, directors, & screen writers obviously did not consult with any scientific university experts on the learning and retraining principles involved. As is, it makes an emotionally compelling story and worthwhile story but a flawed one. Why have the retrainer be one single black man -- why not have many blacks, of many ages and both genders? That's what any adequate retraining regime would have done. And why use a full size burger as a reward? In learning (and retraining) positive results do NOT depend on the size of the reward but upon its frequency of occurrence and immediacy to the desired response and desirability. While these are critical, important points in any effective retraining procedure, they are not those most people would be aware of.

v_haritha_in How to take a sensitive issue that has never been put in film before and turn it into an emotionless drab of a movie? Just watch White Dog.Julie (Kristy McNichols)finds a lost white German Shepard and when no one turns up to claim him, she decides to adopt him. She soon finds out that it had been trained by its previous owner to attack black people. Determined to "cure" him, she takes him to animal trainers, Carruthers and Keys. The best thing about the movie is easily the titular white dog. He is fierce and definitely scary when he bares his large teeth. And the audience do get invested in him as the movie proceeds. But the sad thing is none of the characters seem to be. Most people keep advising Julie to put him down without so much as a flinch. Keys only looks at him as a symbol of racism rather than a living being. He seems to believe that "curing" this dog means taking away a weapon from white racists. He is, as far as the dog is concerned, no different from the previous owner; both of them are using him as tool. Julie looks like the Kristen Stewart of the 80's. In one scene she is defending the dog, in the next she is shouting at Keys to shoot him and then again she is hugging him, all with a poker face. And neither does the script give her any chance to show the transition between her emotional states.I read that the movie makers tried to promote it as a horror film about a monster dog. If they wanted to do so, it had to be a completely different story movie. All elements of racism should be kept out and the audience should not sympathize with the killer dog. Instead what we get is a film that has a few horror-like elements. People speak in short obtuse sentences like in horror movies, but here it is just lame. There are numerous irritating slow motions shots. Ennio Moricone was probably told to write a score for a thriller movie. It is grating on a story about likable dog helplessly brainwashed to do bad things. The editing is poorly done. A lot of time is wasted on pointless scenes like when a policeman comes to the training center asking for directions and when Julie meets the previous owner of the dog. It could have been instead utilized to develop Julie's character a little better.The dog is just that, a dog. The audience are concerned about him as a being. Turing him into a symbol of something larger, in this case racism, is not going to work because nobody looks at an animal and sees a symbol.

Rodrigo Amaro A film that deals with racism and hatred is necessarily racist and because of that can't have a good message? Well, if this is a current truth "White Dog" proves it wrong. With its apparently simple plot of a attacker German Shephard trained to kill Black people, the film directed by Samuel Fuller is a redemption story that makes us not take a look at how animals are treated to make horrible things but it's a even deeper look to another animal whose bestiality surpasses of any other wild animal, and that is us, we, the "thinking human", superior to all the other creatures of Earth.After accidentally hit a dog while driving, an actress (Kristy McNichol) takes the poor animal to her home thinking he's such a good boy. That good boy will later proof to be an racist and horrendous attacker who can kill or injure his victims simply because they're African American. As many know, this kind of situation leaves no alternative than to put the dog out of his misery but the woman says "No, I can't let that happen", and decides to take him to an specialist in wild animals who might cure the dog's dangerous obsession. And who's more inclined to do this job? A black trainer (Paul Winfield in one of his best roles) who tried (and failed) this experiment a few other times and firmly believes that he can take out of the hatred of the vicious dog. Will the white dog change for good?This adaptation from Romain Gary's book is translated to the screen as an strong reflection to us on why people should think twice before training an animal to become a monster who can kill people. To those who dared to call "White Dog" a racist due to the fact of all the things presented throughout the story, take a second look and pay attention to the ending, in which was corroborated that even if changing the animal's ferocity towards his primal target he'll change for another. What we get is that hatred sees beyond colors (even though, as the trainer says, "to the dog it's a black and white world" meaning that he'll find one good, nice and the other bad, I must attack), or to another extent seeing far away from what the film has shown, hatred and intolerance, even seeing the appearances, are completely blind to all the other things that exists, it doesn't see the interior of someone. The biggest questions we must ask ourselves while watching this film is: Does hate can easily be erased from somebody or something? One can teach to despise but one can really teach to change his views or what is thought to be his natural behavior? Not just the dog but a person as well, can we really change them of their negative and violent views? The film answers in its own sad ways but there's greater lessons to be learned when we reach its conclusion. The dog as a metaphor really worked for me, might not be so well perceived by some.It is an upsetting and tense plot but never discouraging, it always manages to make us engaged, thrilled. Of course, it has its minor flaws (an struggling actress like the main character wouldn't have the money to buy that kind of house), it has some weak acting from the leading role and her romantic pair, but it features some decent acting from Winfield, Burl Ives, and the five dogs that play the unnamed White Dog) but it's a effective thriller that skilfully touches the horror (some moments when I couldn't control myself when the trainer tests the dog with another black man in the cage just to prove that the animal already cured); such horror followed by the splendid music of maestro Ennio Morricone. Paramount feared to release this in theaters back in the days believing that the subject wouldn't be accepted by audiences and they also feared a massive boycott led by NAACP. Shelved after a few limited screenings, the film never found its public until recently with the release of the Criterion DVD. Sadly, Fuller never directed another American film just when his career was starting to being resurrected with the glorious war film "The Big Red One". Huge mistake of them but gladly many audiences can rediscover something more appealing and more positive than many flicks out there (and to think that "Birth of a Nation" caused more damage than anything with the racists played as heroes, coming out of the dark again and killing, lynching people and disseminating hatred in America; "White Dog" is highly harmless in comparison). Be prepared to really see something both scary and thought provoking. 10/10

graceism22 White Dog is not a racist film. Samuel Fuller's (the director) intention was not to make a racist film. So why was this movie deemed racist? It was banned in the US and only recently released on DVD. Fuller, accustomed to making B-movies with not much of a "good reputation" thought he could get away with his "radical" messages because he had more freedom to do so. I think the people who thought of this movie as racist only thought so because it's about a white dog attacking black people. However, that's just a tag line; really it's about a racist trainer who brainwashes a dog to attack black people and how a black trainer tries to re-teach the dog not to. In the end the trainer is victorious. Some, who still think the film is racist, might interpret the ending as confirming racism. For a dog, race is just black and white, but the movie said a lot about racism in human society, and the possibilities of re-conditioning. Fuller's movie might not be the greatest film about racism but it very cleverly portrays racism through the medium of a dog—neutral in thought.